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Modafinil and Shift Work Sleep Disorder
Posted By James Carter
Body
Today everyone is aware of the noble viral disease, coronavirus. The whole world is going through the pandemic and is facing the challenge to survive in this harsh world. Covid-19 has taught a lot of things within a short period. The frontline workers are working continuously so that patients recover from this disease. They are working 24 hours continuously without having proper food and water. Health officials, medical staff, social organizations and governments are doing everything so that they could prevent the spread of covid-19. For each and every person, life is very important and so to these frontline workers, but they have no other option to escape from their duty. All persons who are in the medical profession are bound by the oath to serve their duty towards their patients whatever the scenario may be. They will have to take care of the patients till their last breath.
All the frontline workers are bearing the brunt as they put in long hours and continuous efforts to help covid-19 patients. Each and every day the hospital is filling up and the battle is becoming more and more challenging day by day. The doctors and nurses after taking so much protection for themselves are also getting infected. The battle scars which can be seen in the face of doctors and nurses symbolize their sacrifice towards their patients. Therefore, a horrible condition is prevalent in the current situation.
Now in this situation, shift work is a common trend among nurses and doctors. They are working in non-traditional hours especially at night, as a result of which at a certain time, they feel totally fatigued and exhausted after long hours of work. Such an incident happened with my cousin sister who is currently in this profession.
Grace is a very nice and sweet girl. She is very hardworking and diligent too. From her childhood, she dreamt of becoming a nurse and was successful in pursuing her dream 2 years back. Now she is a well reputed nurse who works on shifts as well. In this pandemic, she has experienced a lot of health and mental problems. Everything was going fine when the pandemic first started but as days passed by, she had to take a lot of pressure and had to do continuous night shifts for more than one week. Eventually, she faced certain symptoms like lack of energy, depression, excessive sleepiness during the duty, difficulty in concentrating etc. At that point, she could understand that her workplace performance is decreasing and it can lead to serious accidents. As she was a nurse, she could figure out what the problem actually was. It was none other than shift work sleep disorder which prevented her from doing duty. Shift work sleep disorder is a circadian rhythm disorder characterized by excessive sleepiness, drowsiness and lack of refreshing sleep. By taking the suggestion of a doctor who was also her colleague too, she started taking Modafinil to get rid of these problems. It is a smart drug that promotes wakefulness and is also a brain booster agent.
Modafinil is an oral medication which is taken to reduce sleepiness caused by narcolepsy, shift work sleep disorder and sleep apnea. It is sold under the brand name of Provigil. Modafinil dosage ranges from 200 to 400 mg per day. Grace found this smart drug very effective as it enhanced her cognitive function and boosted memory too. It helped her to stay awake for a long period without feeling sluggish and sleepy. Modafinil also gave her immense concentration and focus level. Her thinking capability and decision-making skills also improved than before. She took the sleep-killing pill once a day before her shift got started and for about 15 hours, she worked continuously.
So in this way, Modafinil has helped her lot to regain her strength without having any adverse or serious effects. She could perform her duty more passionately than before.
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